{"id":6243,"date":"2021-01-08T08:50:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T08:50:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=147498"},"modified":"2021-01-08T08:50:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T08:50:54","slug":"who-is-the-real-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/08\/who-is-the-real-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the Real Enemy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen did not wait for January to send New Year greetings to his successor, Jens Stoltenberg. Summing up the task NATO needs to address as soon as Donald Trump is out of the White House, he wrote, \u2018In 2021 the US and its allies have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reverse global democratic retreat and put autocracies like Russia and China on the back foot. That will happen if major democracies unite in the pursuit of freedom\u2019 (1<\/a>)<\/span>.<\/p>\n

A number of them did just that, a generation ago, when they invaded Afghanistan, then Iraq. Apparently, it\u2019s time they took on more powerful adversaries.<\/p>\n

But which should they tackle first? Since the US plans to assume the leadership of the democratic crusade (\u2018America is back, ready to lead the world\u2019 Joe Biden said on 24 November), satellite states would do well to realise that Americans no longer agree on the identity of their main opponent. Their reasons have little to do with global geopolitics, and a lot with internal divisions.<\/p>\n

Democrats believe the main enemy is Russia: throughout the lastfour years, the party\u2019s leaders, echoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have maintained that \u2018with [Trump] all roads lead to Putin.\u2019<\/p>\n

Republicans, have responded tit-for-tat, in a way that recalls playground squabbles, by nicknaming the president-elect \u2018Beijing Biden\u2019. Biden\u2019s son Hunter has done business in China, and globalisation, which Republicans blame on Democrats, has meant great business for China. QED.<\/p>\n

On 10 December, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did his best to deepen the existing divide between the countries. Claiming, without irony, to be concerned about people\u2019s privacy, the former CIA director first warned the world that China\u2019s president Xi Jinping \u2018has his eye on each and every one of us\u2019. He then attacked the 400,000 students China sends to US universities each year, claiming that some are there to steal industrial and scientific secrets.<\/p>\n

Pompeo also blamed the universities themselves (\u2018Many of our colleges are bought by Beijing\u2019) and, finally, products made by Huawei, claiming that users are putting themselves \u2018in the hands of the Chinese security apparatus\u2019 (2<\/a>)<\/span>. This is the message Republicans will use against Biden. It will replace four years of anti-Russian paranoia fed by the Democrats to attack Trump. The China Sea, Taiwan, the Uyghurs, Hong Kong: all of these will be used to test the new administration\u2019s determination to stand up to China.<\/p>\n

Rasmussen was clear-sighted on one point at least: \u2018President-elect Joe Biden has a queue of America\u2019s weary allies outside his door.\u2019 But as long as they remain members of an alliance led by a power that has lost its bearings, they are unlikely to find peace any time soon.<\/p>\n

This column first appeared on Le Monde Diplomatique<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen did not wait for January to send New Year greetings to his successor, Jens Stoltenberg. Summing up the task NATO needs to\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":523,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/523"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6244,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6243\/revisions\/6244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}